Ventilation sales sky-rocket to serve digital demand

Author: Beatrice

The surge in digital demand as a result of COVID-19 is seeing a corresponding acceleration in specialised ventilation from Gilberts Blackpool.

Britain’s manufacturer of commercial ventilation supply options is reporting growing interest at home and abroad in its internal floor grilles and external ventilation louvres for data centres, specifically its GF Series heavy duty floor grilles and new WK Series kitform screening louvres.

Inside the data centre, Gilberts’ GF Series delivers air volumes up to 500l/sec with a jet velocity of 3m/sec. Able to withstand point loading of up to 4.5KN, the GF grilles are available with slimline hit/miss dampers that are position lockable to give finite control over airflow without hot or cold spots. The dampers are attached to the body grilles and the grilles engineered to replace 600mm square floor tiles to simplify on-site installation and handling.

Externally, Gilberts’ range of factory-built and site-assembled screening louvres provide the agility to address any through-façade ventilation, balancing 50% free ventilation with weather protection. WK is the latest variation, bringing a unique design of mullion which enables screening sections up to 3m high to be constructed on-site without the need for intermediate support. Its kit format means it is easy to precisely cut each blade on site to address specific façade considerations (services penetrations etc.). The system can be infinitely accessorised with eliminator blades, insect screens, acoustic blanks and so on to tailor each screen to specific weather and performance requirements.

“The pandemic and its impact on our way of living – home working, online shopping etc. – has seen the UK designate data centres as part of the Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), and staff therein as keyworkers. London alone has seen an almost doubling of digital deployments in the past year, meaning numbers of existing industrial units are having to be rapidly converted and remodelled,” explains Gilberts’ Sales Director Ian Rogers.

“Good ventilation is critical to address the internal heatload generated from banks of servers. We have remained open for business throughout the various lockdowns and have a reputation for quality product and service. Therefore we have been well-positioned to react and deliver single-source internal and external solutions that are quick to fit and effective in maintaining the precise ambient temperature and humidity (RH) crucial for such sensitive equipment.”